CARDINAL QUALIFIER: WSU PREP WORK FOR PAC-10s: Washington State's men's and women's track and field teams compete at the Cardinal Invitational this weekend. This is a non-scoring meet and all the Cougars competing at the Pac-10 Championships will be competing and trying to improve marks in preparation for the conference meet at the same location the following weekend. The WSU teams and staff will remain at Stanford through May 25 senior triple jumper Hilary Mawindi will be competing at the Oregon Twilight Meet Fri., May 15, where several of the top triple jumpers on the West coast will be competing Ian Waltz will also compete at a throwers only invitational meet on May 19, at Hartnell CC in Salinas, Calif. top throwers from all levels of competition (collegiate, elite club, Olympics training) this season will compete in the shot put and discus.

MUCKER TO PAC-10 MULTI-EVENTS CHAMPIONSHIPS: LaTroya Mucker, a sophomore sprinter from Los Angeles, will compete in the heptathlon at the Pac-10 Conference Multi-Events Championships, May 16-17, at Stanford this will be Mucker's first heptathlon after getting through the first day of a hept at the Tri-City Sports Festival, Mar. 13 in Richland, Wash., where she had to withdraw because of an allergic reaction that caused her face to swell and she lost vision. WSU's 1996 Pac-10 decathlon champion, Leo Slack, graduated May 9, and gave up his final year of eligibility at WSU for marriage and a job in the Tri-Cities.

ABOUT THE COUGAR COACHES: Head coach Rick Sloan is in his 25th season with the Cougar track program (fourth year as a head coach, third year as mentor to the combined men's and women's program)...Sloan was selected the District 8 Indoor Coach of the Year...he was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Indoor Men's Coach of the Year and Women's Coach of the Year...he is joined by associate coach Lissa Olson, assistant coaches Dr. Li Li, Debra Lombardi, Mark Macdonald, and Rohan Walker...WSU's volunteer assistant coaches are Jason Wiens, Robyn Bryson and Dan O'Brien.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Trackwire Top 25, a weekly predictor of national championship placement, show the Cougar men tied for 12th with Texas and South Carolina in the May 6 pollin the USTCA Division I team Power Rankings, the WSU men are fourth out of 48 ranked teams (May 7) while the Cougar women are seventh of the 44 teams ranked (May 8).

WSU ENTRIES FOR MAY 16 MEET: Here are the tentative Cougar entries for this weekend:

LAST WEEK: Rasto Kiplangat's win in the 800m provided the sole NCAA mark at the cold and windy Cougar Invitational Track and Field Meet at Mooberry Track in Pullman Saturday. Kiplangat, a senior from Kenya, was assisted in his race by Bernard Lagat, who ran as a "rabbit" as Kiplangat clocked an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:48.35. The Cougars won all but 26 of the 34 events contested at the meet that featured athletes from WSU, EWU, Idaho, Community Colleges of Spokane and North Idaho College as well as members of the Bigfoot Track Club and several former area collegians competing as "unattached." Seen as a last chance meet for the Cougars prior to the Pac-10 Championships May 23-24 in Stanford, EWU was looking to improve marks for the Big Sky Conference Meet next week in Ogden, Utah, and Idaho in preparation for the Big West Conference finals. WSU's Charlotte Neel, a freshman from Olympia, Wash., ran a Pac-10 qualifying 4:39.58 to win the women's 1500m race. Lucita Zapata, a sophomore from Walla Walla, also qualified for the Pac-10 meet with a lifetime-best time of 14.21 for second in the women's 100m high hurdles.